


from the crease of your mouth to the picket fences (what i needed the most was you here)

by possibilist



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-13
Updated: 2015-01-13
Packaged: 2018-03-07 10:50:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3171926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/possibilist/pseuds/possibilist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"She’s very young—and so are you, really—despite the fact that you’ve both had to grow up so much far too fast. She kisses you clumsily on a whim, slipping a little bit, and you catch her, and she giggles. 'I’m never going to get tired of kissing you.'<br/>You grin. 'Me either.'"</p><p>little korrasami moments post book 4. fluff, a little angst. little appearances by some other people, but definitely korrasami-centric.</p>
            </blockquote>





	from the crease of your mouth to the picket fences (what i needed the most was you here)

**Author's Note:**

> i don't even really belong to this fandom but i love them so so so much like so much gOD THEY'RE SO CUTE
> 
> you can find me on tumblr at possibilistfanfiction if you want :)

**from the crease of your mouth to the picket fences (what i needed the most was you here)**

.

_as i roll, as i grow, tougher than i used to be/ love is sweet and it calls you again/ to bring you back from where you’ve been_  
—made in heights, ‘pirouette’

//

“You know,” you say, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, “you’re not actually taller than I am.”

Korra huffs a little laugh and takes her hands off of your shoulders to rest them on your hips. “I’m the most powerful person on earth.”

You grin and rest your elbows on her shoulders, lace your fingers together. It’s not  _really_ proper etiquette for the dance floor, but Korra really has never been one for proper etiquette, and she smiles and wraps her arms tighter around your waist. “You’re shorter than me.”

She rolls her eyes but she’s smiling and you’ve been back from the spirit world for exactly one day before you had to go to this very prestigious party, which you’re pretty sure is a thank you in Korra’s honor, despite the fact that she doesn’t like politics or parities. 

She huffs when the song ends and you back up, but you take her hand with a squeeze. You haven’t really told anyone, just because she spent the night at your apartment and then you’d gotten ready for the gala, but you’re pretty sure there’s going to be many, many rumors that Korra’s probably going to—ungracefully—confirm in her press conference tomorrow.

Which is fine—your father would’ve been happy, you think, and you don’t really care about anyone else. When Korra was gone you’d slept with a few women and a few men—inconsequentially, but you’re sure about your sexuality—and you’re even more sure about Korra, who is inexperienced and eager and  _beautiful_ , with her strong muscles and dark skin and bright eyes.

She’d always been good at learning quickly, too, you think with a smile, and she’d been hesitant at first, but not about wanting you.

“I have to go talk to them,” you say, leaning closely into Korra’s side and whispering in her ear, throwing a thumb over your shoulder at some businessmen, and she stiffens with a shiver that delights you.

“Okay,” she gulps, and you grin and head off in the direction of a very boring table of people.

You’re distracted, because you watch Korra wander off to talk to Tenzin, but you talk some new specs for updates on the Sato Mobile and a new model for racing—which, to be fair, you’re dying to test out yourself—and you’re slowly gaining the respect of the entire business and science community. You’re starting to get involved in designing devices to help healers, which you find you’re even more excited about than cars, which is saying something, because those have been your favorites up until this point.

They listen and actually end up laughing when you crack a few jokes about mathematics, and they’re polite enough to not ask about Korra.

But when you look over, Tenzin is giving her a big hug, and Jinora, who had wandered over, gives her a high five with a knowing smile. Your heart skips a little beat and you excuse yourself, and you grab two glasses of champagne before walking over to them. Jinora immediately barrels into you in a hug, and she says, “I  _knew_ it, and I’m so happy for you!”

Tenzin laughs and you say, “Um, thank you?”

Korra smiles and takes the glass of champagne as you sit down next to her. She puts her arm around you with a second thought, and Korra’s brashness has always been something you’d admired, but now you really adore it, because she’s unabashedly proud.

Tenzin smiles kindly in your direction and says, “Korra told me—us—” he gestures toward Jinora—“about your relationship, and I, like Jinora, and, I can promise you, our entire family, are so very happy for you two.”

“Thank you, Tenzin,” you say, and you reach across and squeeze his hand. “That means so much for me to hear, really.”

He nods, and you think he understands what you mean, because you know he and Korra are close, but also you visited a lot when Korra was gone, and you don’t have family, really, but he and Pema and their kids had become something of a home on Air Temple Island compared to your big, single apartment or your factories or office.

Make starts to walk over, and you look to Korra, and she sighs with a shrug; this party probably isn’t the best place to tell everyone, but you know Korra probably isn’t going to be anything but blunt at her press conference tomorrow, so you nod.

Tenzin says hello to Mako and then drags Jinora off to talk to some more people, and you say, “Why don’t we get a little air?”

He shrugs and Korra follows you both out to a balcony, and it overlooks the spirit portal, which you can’t help but smile at.

“So, what’s up?” Mako asks.

“Well,” you say, “we had something to tell you, and we wanted you to hear it from us, and it might be kind of weird for you—”

“Asami and I are dating,” Korra says—or, really, blurts.

Mako’s eyes get big but he kind of starts to  _laugh_. “Well, you know, you went to the spirit world together and have danced together all night, so, um—congratulations?”

Korra wraps him in an enthusiastic hug and says, “Oh,  _thank you_ , Mako!”

You laugh and join in. “Thanks, Mako.”

He shrugs when Korra backs up and says, “Just—thank me at your wedding.”

You look to Korra for a second and she looks slightly panicked before she starts laughing again and takes your hand.

After the party that night, you don’t get too much sleep.

//

You’re in the front of the crowd gathered around for her press conference, and you know that Korra has a  _lot_ of questions to answer in the wake of the battle, so you’re not entirely sure the question of your relationship will come up.

Then again, you’re not surprised when it does.

You know she wishes she could’ve told her parents first, but—oh well, apparently, because one reporter says, “So, you and your gal pal, Asami Sato—”

Korra starts talking before he can finish, and you want to laugh and cringe and hide and kind of clap at the same time, because she says, “She’s my girlfriend.” The crowd stills very perceptively and a few of the journalists and photographers turn toward you, but Korra continues, “Asami and I are dating. We kiss; we have sex. Dating. Next question.”

You want to laugh, and Varick is laughing, and Tenzin sighs but gives you a warm smile, and you’re kind of more in love than you ever been, because she finds your face and shoots you a grin before she starts answering a very complex question about the energy of the spirit portal.

Afterward, you walk up to her—there are still photographers everywhere—and you say, “Since you just described our sex life—”

She scoffs. “I did not say specifics—”

“—Why don’t we give them a little show?”

Her eyes glaze over for a second and her breath catches and then she presses up on her tiptoes and kisses you. It’s chaste and soft and you close your eyes but you hear the cameras anyway.

She smiles into your lips before she pulls away, and then she walks away from the  _very_ pushy crowd to find Tenzin. He shakes his head a little bit but he can’t stop smiling, and Korra holds your hand without any sort of hesitation.

//

Korra’s in about five feet of her parents on the dock and she starts saying, “Mom, Dad, I really wanted to tell you first, but we had to go to that party and then I had those press conferences, but I’m bisexual! And—”

Senna laughs and Tonraq sweeps Korra up in a hug, and you’re trailing behind a little bit but Senna wraps her arms around you.

“Korra,” she says after she steps back, “we know, honey. Or—we’ve known?” She looks to Tonraq, who nods.

“Believe it or not, we’ve watched you look at Asami’s butt for years.”

Korra says, “Oh  _god_ ,” and you think you’re blushing  _hard._

“So,” Tonraq says, smiling at the two of you, “we’re really happy that you’ve finally gotten together.”

“We are,” Senna says, then hugs Korra tightly. “You deserve the world, sweetheart, and Asami’s always been really important to you. We’ve understood that for a long time, no matter how you felt about one another.”

You swallow—Korra was gone for  _three years_ , and you haven’t really talked about them, not really, but Senna and Tonraq know much more than you do.

“And Asami,” Senna says, “welcome to our family.”

You fight back tears—you’ve been without a family for a while now, really, but now you  _really_ have lost your parents—but you smile at their soft expressions, and you say, “I’m honored.”

Tonraq claps his hands and Korra rolls her eyes, but he takes your bags and Korra takes your hand.

“Guys,” she says, “just so you know, Asami’s bisexual too!”

Tonraq booms a laugh and turns to smile at you.

“Well, Korra,” he says, winking at you, “looks like you inherited my good taste in women.”

Senna rolls her eyes and Korra grins. “Yeah, obviously.”

//

It’s kind of cold, but Korra’s used to it, and it’s beautiful, up on this little outcropping of rocks. She’s snuggled into your side and casually bending snow into intricate patterns before letting them fall down the small cliff. The lights in the sky are beautiful—you’ve seen them before, but never quite like this.

“This isn’t an apology,” she says, very softly, “but I owe you an explanation—for why I was gone for so long.”

You kiss the top of her head and your stomach bottoms out. “You don’t owe me anything, Korra.”

“I know, but—I haven’t told anyone about all of it.”

“Okay,” you say.

It takes her a lot of stuttering, a lot of deep breaths and tears and waiting for a few minutes so she can bend between sentences, but she tells you quietly about how flashbacks, about the past-distorted-self she’d seen; about not being able to fight her, about how learning to walk was exhausting, and learning to bend again almost broke her, but her mind and her spirit crushed her for a long time.

She tells you about cutting her hair, changing her clothes, trying to shake some shadowed identity, how running away was running toward, how she finally got the rest of the poison out of her body.

It makes you cry when she says sometimes she wanted to give up, because the world would be better with a new avatar, and you feel the same thrill of fear during those six months when you didn’t know where she was, because she could’ve died, she could’ve done something irrevocably heartbreaking. 

“I’m glad you’re here,” you say, “now, exactly as you are. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Asami,” she says, scooting back a little so she can look at you, “I still have flashbacks—not the same kind, but—they’re there. And nightmares. And scars. I’m not—”

You let her trail off on her own, and you say, “I have those things too.”

Her face falls. “I know you do.”

“Do you love me less because of them?”

Her eyes grow wide and you realize what you’ve just said, but she’s Korra, and she’s brave.

“I think—I love you more, because—you’re kind and so smart and beautiful and very courageous.”

You smile and you press your forehead against hers. “I love you more too.”

She kisses you, gently, then deeper, and you kiss back, put your hands on the sides of her head, weave your fingers through her hair, and soon enough she’s sort of tugged you up to straddle her lap.

“Fuck,” she bites out, and you sit back, but she smiles and tugs you toward her again, “I love you so much, Asami.”

You laugh. “Eloquent as always.”

She swats at your arm but she doesn’t stop kissing you.

“I love you so much, too.”

It’s too cold for you to actually let her take your clothes off, although she tries at one point. She pouts because you’re staying with her parents, and it’s been a long thirty-four hours since you’ve had sex.

You hold her hand while you walk back, and she bends little bit, silly shapes and gets them close enough to your face that you flinch a few times, which she laughs at delightedly, which makes you smile despite yourself.

She’s very young—and so are you, really—despite the fact that you’ve both had to grow up so much far too fast.

She kisses you clumsily on a whim, slipping a little bit, and you catch her, and she giggles. “I’m never going to get tired of kissing you.”

You grin. “Me either.”

//

She’s biting back a moan as your hands knead an apparently especially tender knot in her muscular back. She’d come back from her first mission away a little injured, and your heart had dropped somewhere near your stomach when she’d limped off the airship, a black eye and a few scrapes and bruises, but she’d kissed you with a smile and said, “I kicked so much  _ass._ ”

“Hello to you too, baby,” you’d said.

She’d seen healers immediately after that, and you’d held her hand but paid close attention to their intricate techniques, because you think you can make a device that can speed up the scanning process, at the very least, which could be crucial with really serious injuries.

Korra’s grimace smooths quickly, but she’s still sore, you know, and her eye is still a little bruised, her cuts almost faded.

You’d taken the day off anyway, although you don’t tell her that—you just tell her that you hadn’t had meetings; you’d actually cancelled five, but she doesn’t really need to know that quite yet.

When you’d gotten back to your apartment, she’d flopped down on the bed with a groan. You smiled and climbed above her, started slowly taking her clothes off. She was wide-eyed as you traced a line down the middle of her defined abs.

But she’s hurt—still sore—and so you’d kept your clothes on and kissed her gently before saying, “Turn over, I’ll give you a massage.”

She lifts an eyebrow, which makes you laugh.

“A  _real_  massage, Korra.”

She grins and squirms onto her stomach quickly.

You’ve always thought she was beautiful, always loved the way her body moved, how strong and skilled she was. You know she loves how slight you are, how your muscles smooth into one another, but the ridges in her body are some of your favorite physical things in the world.

You trace down her spine and smile when she erupts in goosebumps, and you start at the base of her spine, work your way up her tense muscles, which relax more and more.

“Asami?” she asks quietly, slightly out of breath.

“Yeah?”

“My tattoo…”

“Mhm?”

She muffles a groan into her pillow as you work on a persistent knot. 

“What about it?”

“Is it—it’s okay?”

You furrow your brow and sit back, look at Korra’s back carefully. The imprint of Raava—lightened, almost shining parts of skin down her entire back  _looks_  fine, like it always does. 

“It doesn’t look any different to me, is something hurting?”

She sighs and then shakes her head and starts to roll over, so you swing your leg over and lie down next to her on your side.

She reaches up to tug at your hair gently with an embarrassed smile.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Oh.”

She sighs. “I didn’t—I didn’t  _choose_  to have a gigantic tattoo on my back, but I do—and, just—do you think it’s—you don’t hate it?”

You feel sad, because Korra’s grown up with a lot of validation for her identity as Avatar, but not as a girl, not as  _Korra_. “It’s beautiful,” you say.

Her shoulders relax and her eyes are so wide. “Do you really mean that?”

“Yeah,” you say, “I do. You’re beautiful.”

She tucks her head into the crook of your shoulder with a laugh and says, “You know, I always thought someone would be crazy to choose me over you.”

Your heart breaks, and you coax her head back up, so you can look at her. You brush aside her bangs and kiss her forehead. “You’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever known,” you say, very evenly. “Scars and tattoo and bad puns and Avatar abilities and all.”

She smiles this indulgent, reluctant smile and blushes deeply, then kisses you once.

“And I’m really proud you’re my girlfriend, and I’m really lucky to get to love you.”

She shakes her head and says, “Well, you are the genius in this relationship, after all, so obviously you figured some stuff out.”

You can’t help but let out a laugh, because she grins. 

“Thank you, though,” she says, softer, and traces a finger down your arm. “I think I’m probably the luckiest girl in the world.”

You smile and kiss her again. “I actually think your tattoo is really sexy and I want to fuck you really hard every time I see it,” you whisper into her mouth, “for the sake of honesty.”

She groans. “Asami, you can’t  _say_ those things unless you plan on following through.”

You grin. “Who says I don’t plan on it?”

Her pupils blow and her hands make quick work of your blouse. You love that Korra forgets—or chooses not to use—any of her powers when she’s making love to you; she’s just Korra.

You fall asleep a few hours, tangled, both of you holding the other, both of you being held, and when you wake up near dawn, her skin is tinted with drifting rays from the window, softened by the wispy curtains, and close your eyes and go back to sleep, her scarred, soft, muscled, small arm wrapped securely, gently, around your waist.


End file.
